Lou Sanders @ Monkey Barrel

Lou Sanders might not be for everyone: she’s loud, she’s opinionated and she has no shame. She’s also brilliantly funny, at times throwing away improvised jokes that are better than you’ll see in another act's show. Her problem seems to have always been a structural one, not managing to tame her scatterbrain approach to the form and too often going off on crowd-sourced tangents that lead to brick walls.

In this latest hour Shame Pig there are a few, but she manages to pull up before crashing into the walls of bemused stares. She rings laughs from any and all subjects, telling of her own shameful exploits so we feel less bad about ours. She’s led a ridiculous life and it’s only right she should channel it into stand-up gold (her death-faking father deserves a show all his own). Calling people out for shaming each other, hoping others can learn from her humiliation, Sanders refuses to be owned by shame. And beyond the daftness there’s a clear message of a shameless society we’d be happy to live in.

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Lou Sanders: Shame Pig, Monkey Barrel Comedy Club (Room One), 2-26 Aug (not 15), 12.30pm, £5/PWYW

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